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August 26, 2012

NEW DELHI: India is getting ready to order 22 heavy-duty Apache helicopters for around $1.4 billion, in what will be yet another big defence deal to be bagged by the US.

The US has already made military sales worth over $8 billion to India over the last few years, despite it having lost out to France in the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to supply 126 fighters to IAF, which is in the final commercial negotiations stage.

In the battle for the attack helicopters, Boeing's AH-64 D Apache Longbow met all air staff qualitative requirements during the field trials conducted by the IAF, while the Russian Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant's Mi-28 Havoc failed to pass muster.

"It's just a matter of time before the contract is inked for the Apaches after final commercial negotiations. Most of the hurdles have been cleared,'' a defence ministry official said. The US and Russia are also locked in battle to supply 15 heavy-lift helicopters to IAF, with the Boeing-manufactured Chinooks pitted against the Russian Mi-26 choppers.

Indian armed forces are looking to induct as many as 900 helicopters in the coming decade, including 384 light-utility and observation, 90 naval multirole, 65 light combat, 22 heavy-duty attack, 139 medium-lift and 15 heavy-lift, among others, many of them from abroad.

Among the other military aviation deals already bagged by the US are the $4.1 bn contract for 10 C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift aircraft, $2.1 billion for eight P-8 I maritime patrol aircraft and $962 million for six C-130 J 'Super Hercules'' planes.

August 23, 2012

Indian
Coast Guard Hovercraft H-187, the first of the series of 12 Air Cushion
Vehicles (ACVs) designed and built by Griffon Hoverwork Limited

The
21 meters long Air Cushion Vehicle displaces 31 tonnes and can achieve a
maximum speed of 45 knots. The ACV is capable of undertaking
multi-farious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, search and
rescue and rendering assistance to small boats/craft in distress at sea.

August 18, 2012

Move seen part of the cold start doctrine in which Indian armored column will move in to occupy Pakistan in case Pakistan government abdicates or collapses to Taliban militants

South Punjab - Multan, Quetta in Balochistan and Karachi will be the main thrust using the Indus valley for transportation

Jaisalmer is set to house the first “model modern military station”
of the country with reduced response time to emergencies, battle-ready
capabilities in modern warfare and a set up critical to the supply chain
for army rationing.

According to highly placed sources, the
Indian Army has decided to develop a modern army base in the border
district to cut down on the response time to an emergency, including a
reduction in travel time in case of a disturbance along the border. It’s
proximity to the international border of India and Pakistan, has got the
army to reap the benefits of this strategic location for securing the
nation against any foreign aggression in future. At present, the
army base at Jodhpur is trained to respond to a situation across the
border, but to expedite heavy military movement, a station close to the
border is being put up, sources said. The distance from Jodhpur to the
border is around 300 km. Having a base at Jaisalmer would save at least
6-7 hours for the troops. “In case of disturbance or war-like situation,
when every minute counts, such a response time can turn the situation
around,” a reliably placed official said, adding, “Because of its
location Jaisalmer is being developed as a defence hub; the defence
department has identified some places where the latest technology would
be installed as a tactical ploy in modern warfare; Jaisalmer is one of
them.”

"Sukhoi" has started testing the fighter T-50 (PAK FA) with a new
on-board radar system with an active phased array, said in a statement
received by the Editor "Lenty.ru." The new radar is installed on the
third prototype of the future fighter T-50-3. In the first ground and
flight tests were checked in the modes of the radar features
"air-to-air" and "air-surface". In parallel testing of optical channels.

Radar PAK FA being developed by the Research Institute of Instrument
name Tikhomirov. According to the "Sukhoi", a radar with electronic beam
control is made on the basis of the Russian element
nanoheterostructures. The system will allow the PAK FA to recognize and
classify the group and single target at long range, and at the same time
pointing to arms for a few of them. In addition, on-board system will
provide communications and electronic countermeasures.

In February 2012 it was reported that the PAK FA prototype made a total
of more than 120 flights. The third prototype of the aircraft involved
in the flight test program in November 2011. It is expected that during
2012 the program will connect, and the fourth prototype of the T-50-4.
The first prototype aircraft flies from January 2010 and the second - in
March 2011.

August 9, 2012

India will on Tuesday formally open a key naval station, aptly named
INS Baaz (Hawk), in the southern part of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
that will boost its ability to keep an eagle eye on the critical
maritime choke-point: the Strait of Malacca.
With navy chief
Admiral Nirmal Verma declaring the base open, the nation’s
southeastern-most fringe, which is closer to Indonesia than the Indian
mainland, India will gain strategic supremacy in the area, an Indian
Navy officer said in New Delhi.
The new base, which will also
include an upgraded air base, will soon be operating heavier military
planes from the Indian Air Force fleet like the just-inducted Hercules
C-130J Super Hercules meant for special forces’ operations.
Campbell
Bay straddles a strategically key location in the Indian Ocean/Bay of
Bengal overlooking the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, from across Aceh
in Indonesia. With this, the Indian military will be sitting pretty at a
location from where it can kickstart operations if maritime activities
in the region are threatened.
Once a piracy-affected region,
Indian and Indonesian navies continue to monitor it for criminal
activities by jointly patrolling their maritime borders.
India’s
move comes even as the US has spelt out its future military strategy to
focus on the Asia-Pacific by “re-balancing” its force levels from the
Atlantic.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had said at the
Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore last month – and in New Delhi earlier –
that the US will base at least 60 per cent of its naval assets in the
Asia-Pacific region.
The Strait of Malacca acts as a key link
between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, connecting East Asia,
Australia and the US with Asia and Africa.
At least a quarter of
the world’s trade – and more importantly, at least 80 per cent of
China’s oil requirements – passes through the Strait of Malacca.
India already operates naval bases at Port Blair and Car Nicobar in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands chain.
It also has at least three air strips at Diglipur in the north Andamans, Port Blair and Car Nicobar.
The
new base will significantly increase India’s strategic reach in the
region, considering that Campbell Bay is about 300 nautical miles south
of Car Nicobar, till now the navy’s major forward operating base in the
area.

August 7, 2012

India has quietly gate-crashed into an even more exclusive club of nuclear-tipped submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). Project found out when top scientist given award

The annual awards function of the Defence Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) the other day witnessed Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh handing over the “technology leadership award” to a scientist, A K
Chakrabarti, of the Hyderabad-based DRDL lab, for the “successful
development” of the country’s first SLBM. This capability has been
acquired only by four nations, the US, Russia, France and China. Long
shrouded in secrecy as a “black project”, unlike the surface-to-surface
nuclear missiles like Agni, the SLBM may now finally come out of the
closet. Called different names at different developmental phases, which
included “Sagarika’’ for an extended period, the SLBM in question is the
‘K-15’ missile with a 750-km strike range. Much like the over 5,000-km
Agni-V that will be fully operational by 2015 after four-to-five
“repeatable tests”, the K-15 is also still some distance away from being
deployed. While the SLBM may be fully-ready and undergoing production
now, as DRDO contends after conducting its test several times from
submersible pontoons, its carrier INS Arihant will take at least a year
before it’s ready for “deterrent patrols”.

India’s first
indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, the 6,000-tonne INS Arihant, is
still undergoing “harbor-acceptance trials” with all its pipelines being
cleared and tested meticulously on shore-based steam before its
miniature 83 MW pressurized light-water reactor goes “critical”. The
submarine will then undergo extensive “sea-acceptance trials” and
test-fire the 10-tonne K-15, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear
payload, from the missile silos on its hump.

The sea-based nuclear
leg in the shape of SLBMs is much more effective — as also survivable
being relatively immune to pre-emptive strikes — than the air or land
ones. Nuclear-powered submarines, which are capable of operating
silently underwater for months at end, armed with nuclear-tipped
missiles are, therefore, considered the most potent and credible leg of
the triad. With even the US and Russia ensuring that two-thirds of the
strategic warheads they eventually retain under arms reduction
agreements will be SLBMs, India with a clear “no-first use” nuclear
doctrine needs such survivable second-strike capability to achieve
credible strategic deterrence.